JERUSALEM – Israeli leaders are anxiously awaiting a new initiative from the United States aimed at bringing the Palestinians back to cease-fire negotiations, a top official in Jerusalem told The Post last night.

The hope is that the latest American effort – expected this week – will end the cycle of Palestinian attacks and Israeli “targeted killings” of terrorists that has raged for months.

“Any American initiative will be welcomed,” the official said.

Meanwhile, the Israeli Cabinet received a report yesterday declaring that Palestinian chief Yasser Arafat is under pressure from some of his closest allies to return to the bargaining table.

They have told him that months of violence have not yielded any Palestinian gains because “Israel has not budged an inch politically or territorially,” the report said.

There has been indirect criticism of Arafat in some Palestinian newspapers recently, and there have been media reports of an unusual row with his favorite security chief, Mohamed Bahlan.

Despite the fresh moves toward new talks, the bloodshed continued yesterday.

At a farming collective north of Tel Aviv, a Palestinian gunman blew away the civilian security officer with semiautomatic gunfire, wounded a second person and then fled.

The murder of Aharon Usishikin, 50, happened in the town of Kfar Hess, about six miles from Israel’s border with the West Bank.

Earlier, a member of the Islamic Jihad was killed when the bomb he was making exploded in his blacksmith’s shop.